Girl director laments the extent of violence against women in film: 'We just don't need that anymore'

Girl explores violence against women and the trauma it leaves behind with a subtle touch, something that was done by design by director Adura Onashile who tells Yahoo UK that she feels it has "been a mainstay" in media for "far too long."

Onashile's feature film debut depicts the relationship between single mother Grace (Déborah Lukumuena) and her daughter Ama (Le'Shantey Bonsu), the former of which is desperate to keep her child safe from the evils that she believes lurk outside their door following her own traumatic experiences as a young girl.

The Black British filmmaker makes the creative decision to only imply what happened to Grace because, as she explains to Yahoo, it didn't feel necessary to do more because there is too much trauma being shown on screen already.

"That was for many reasons, the first one, I suppose, is that the story is not about the assault, the story is about the aftermath of the assault years and how the assault hasn't been dealt with, and then is dealt with," she explains.

"Safety for the performers, safety for the viewers, safety for what it means to constantly have to ingest women's bodies being treated in a certain way, I don't think that's necessary and I don't wanna be a part of that.

"So, in storytelling term and in political terms, it didn't feel like it was necessary to go there, and also I think with a film like this... I like to make work that doesn't spoon feed the audience and how to feel, and how to join the dots. It's more of an emotional experience I think."

The film is loosely inspired on Onashile's own experiences as the daughter of a single mother, she did not experience sexual assault but their relationship was such that they "found solace in one another" in a similar way to how Grace and Ama did.

"It can feel very like mother-daughter, or the parent-child, relationship can feel very one-dimensional in the way it's seen on the screen," Onashile says as she reflects on her interpretation of it.

"It's just loving, that's it. That's what it's meant to be, that's what it is and there isn't a sense of how that relationship can be different, contradictory motions, or that the relationship can feel epic in its intimacy and I felt like I really wanted to explore that.

"I really wanted to explore a relationship that's dynamic but also really intimate and that it has the sense of the outside world pushing in on it. And I think that these sorts of relationships can be as interesting as all the other kinds of relationships we look at in film and in art."

Onashile's film gives an interesting examination of how mothers, particularly single mothers, can be treated by society, and made to feel shame for the way in which they raise their children.

Reflecting on her film's interpretation of this issue, and how this stigma can change she said: "I think all change probably starts with empathy, you have to understand people to be able to change or to change your view of them.

"In many respects I just wanted to treat Grace and Amma with care and respect, the sort of care and respect that everybody deserves, but that maybe characters like them are afforded less and less, both in real life and in the cinema.

"And so it becomes really important to show what you want to see in reality, and it felt like that was important to me."

"I think a lot of motherhood is political, and I think women historically haven't been given enough scope to feel all sorts of feelings when motherhood is concerned."

"I'm a mother of a young child, and so I know that that relationship is all the things. It's love, it's tiredness, it's exhaustion, it's frustration, it's anger. It's all the emotions and I think, as mothers, we should be allowed to feel that, and I think we can only deal with those feelings, if we're honest about them."

Girl premieres in cinemas on Friday, 24 November.

Read more:

• Paapa Essiedu: I'd approach 'every single one' of my roles differently if I could

• Girl review – claustrophobic mother-daughter drama of immigrants in Glasgow (The Guardian, 2-min read)